Silencing the Guns, Illusion or Reality? Why a Biblical Theology of Violence Matters

Abstract

It is almost as if violence and the African continent are synonymous terms. Furthermore, many researchers have studied the issue of violence in the African continent. Recent studies propose that the causes of violence in Africa are multifaceted, and most of their focus is on the external causes. Such views present people only as victims of circumstances, and that which leads them towards violence is always external. This paper, however, through employing a qualitative research methodology based primarily on literature review, shows that having a proper biblical theology of violence in Africa does not place humans primarily as victims but inherently as the chief perpetrators of violence because of their fundamentally flawed human nature; further, that the issue of violence is primarily a moral issue. Thus, the question whether the African Union’s quest of ‘silencing the guns’ remains an illusion or reality shows that it remains an illusion when the real problem is not addressed.